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DWP doctors earn how much?

Have you ever wondered how much doctors get paid for carrying out medicals for the Department for Work and Pensions? Would you like to know if there’s a financial incentive to rush through incapacity medicals as fast as possible? Do you sometimes wonder whether visiting DLA doctors squeeze in their visits around playing golf and watching cricket? Well, now we can answer all your questions – so long as the footie hasn’t started yet.

DWP doctors are hired on a self-employed basis by a company called Nestor, who provide private medical staff for a range of companies. Nestor are sub-contractors to Atos Origin, who have the contract to run Medical Services on behalf of the DWP. (Are you with us so far?). According to information on the Nestor Disability Analysis website, doctors doing home visits can earn up to £104.70 per completed case, depending on the type of benefit. It seems very likely that the highest payments are reserved for disability living allowance medical reports.

So that’s £104.70 plus mileage at 40p per mile for DLA medicals.

But what about incapacity for work personal capability assessments?

These are carried out at Medical Examination Centres. According to Nestor, doctors have the potential to earn more than £300 a day carrying out examination centre work. They also explain that on average doctors examine 4 to 5 clients within a 3.5 hour period of work in the centres. So a reasonable estimate is that a doctor doing two sessions a day would see up to 10 clients in order to earn that £300.

So that’s around £30 a time for incapacity medicals. But the faster the doctor can zip through them – the fewer questions they ask and the less typing they do – the more money they can earn.

And what about golf and cricket? Well, Nestor offer us two profiles of typical disability analysis doctors, one of whom is: “Dr David Daniels: Male - Retired from Occupational Health - Able to pursue hobbies such as golf, watching cricket and travelling”

Dr Daniels tells us that since retiring from his full-time job and taking up sessional work for Nestor: “I'm able to spend significantly more time with my family and friends - as well as pursuing my other interests: playing golf, watching cricket and travelling!"

So, if the doctor visiting you or your client seems in a bit of a rush, then have a little sympathy – he's only getting a hundred quid for calling in and his chums may be waiting impatiently for him on the first tee.